Pope Leo XIV Meets Earthquake Survivors Ten Years After Central Italy Earthquakes

Ten years after the ground shook, about 10,000 people are still living in temporary homes. In Amatrice, the town hit hardest, large sections are still cordoned off, and destroyed buildings have still not been renovated or rebuilt.

Those were the numbers Pope Leo XIV was given on Saturday morning, when representatives of the earthquake-hit towns of central Italy came to the Vatican to be heard. Pope Leo met on Saturday morning, October 31, 2026, with representatives of Italian communities that still bear the wounds of a series of earthquakes ten years ago, Vatican News reports.

The Holy See Press Office says the audience took place in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, with delegations from municipalities in areas of central Italy affected by the earthquakes. The pope listened, and then he spoke about rebuilding, and about what a town needs first when everything has fallen down.

The earthquakes struck between August 2016 and January 2017, in the Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Vatican News reports. They led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people, the death of around 300, and severe economic and cultural loss, the report says.

Catholic News World, publishing the full text of the pope's address, puts the toll at nearly 300 killed and tens of thousands displaced. It repeats the same stark present-day figure: roughly 10,000 people still live in temporary housing.

The first and worst shock came at 3:36am on August 24, 2016, when a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck the central Apennines, between Amatrice, Accumoli, and Arquata del Tronto. That account comes from Vatican City State's record of the tenth anniversary, and the overall toll recalled by the Quirinale, Italy's presidency, was 299 dead, 365 injured, and more than 40,000 displaced, according to Italian Facts.

Pope Leo XIV Earthquake Rebuilding Address Nehemiah Jerusalem

Pope Leo began his address by joining his listeners in the Word of God, the Holy See Press Office bulletin says. He turned to a text that plays an important role in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: the Book of Nehemiah, which recounts the return of the people to a Jerusalem still in ruins after devastation by the Babylonians.

Jerusalem was rebuilt, the pope said, "not through the efforts of a single individual, but through the shared responsibility of the entire people," according to Vatican News. At the same time, he said, rebuilding required "the gift of a prophetic gaze, capable of discerning, beyond the rubble, something that no one else yet perceives."

He encouraged his listeners to continue their journey with a dual perspective, Vatican News reports. On one hand, there is a synodal approach, building together, and on the other, a prophetic vision, rooted in present needs but looking ahead to discern the common good.

The pope then offered the example of saints of the region, including Rita of Cascia and Nicholas of Tolentino, as well as Saint Benedict and Saint Francis of Assisi, Vatican News reports. "The example of the saints," he said, "reminds us that for hope to be more than a mere wish, it requires, first and foremost, tangible and urgent responses."

Pope Leo XIV Rebuild Quickly Safely Transparently Amatrice

The sharpest line in the address came when the pope turned to the pace of reconstruction. He insisted that, ten years on, "every effort must be made to ensure that physical reconstruction takes place as quickly as possible, safely, and transparently," Vatican News reports.

The Holy See Press Office bulletin carries the same line. It says all energy must be devoted to ensuring that physical reconstruction happens as quickly as possible, safely, and transparently.

That insistence did not come out of nowhere. On the tenth anniversary in August, President Sergio Mattarella described the earthquake as a dramatic page in the history of the Republic and called for reconstruction to be completed as soon as possible, according to Italian Facts.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, spoke in Pescara del Tronto of long, very long years, of promises that remained unfulfilled, and of delays that became unbearable for those who lost everything, the same report says.

The figures behind those words are sobering. As of May 31, 2026, requests for contributions for private reconstruction numbered 36,149, with a total value of 17.82 billion euros, according to data cited by Italian Facts.

Pope Leo also spoke about the centre that holds a community together. Returning to the rebuilding of Jerusalem, he noted that the prophet Haggai had urged the community, rightly concerned with its own needs, not to forget the Temple, "the centre that served as the heart of the Holy City," Vatican News reports.

"One cannot make a fresh start without first rebuilding that which gives meaning and a foundation to a community," the pope said. He emphasised starting again from the centre, "starting again from God, from people, from the common good, and from relationships."

Readers following the pope and the Church in Italy can see related coverage in an Assisi peace gathering with 384 faith leaders, in Pope Leo saying there is no such thing as a holy war at Assisi, and in the latest health update on Pope Leo and a missed Assisi trip.

What Happens Next for Central Italy Earthquake Reconstruction

The pope closed his address with encouragement taken from the Bible, Vatican News reports. He said: "Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you!"

There is a seperate weight to meeting people ten years after a disaster, rather than ten days after it. Ten days after, the world is watching, and help is arriving, but ten years after, the cameras have gone, the cordons are still up, and the people who stayed are still waiting.

The delegations who travelled to the Vatican on Saturday were not asking for sympathy. They were asking, by their presence, for the reconstruction to be finished, quickly, safely, and transparently, in the pope's own words.

What happens next will not be decided in an audience hall. It will be decided in municipal offices, in funding decisions, in building sites in Amatrice, Accumoli, and Arquata del Tronto, and in the lives of the roughly 10,000 people still in temporary housing.

The pope's address gives those decisions a moral frame: shared responsibility, a vision beyond the rubble, and a centre worth rebuilding first. Whether that frame speeds up the work, or whether the next ten years look like the last ten, is the question the towns took home with them on Saturday, along with the pope's blessing, and his insistence that hope must be tangible, urgent, and built upon rock.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.